April 10, Vitebsk /Olga Bogacheva - BELTA/. Four districts of the Vitebsk region have started sowing early spring grain and leguminous crops, the Agriculture and Food Committee of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee informed a BELTA correspondent. The first field trips began in Braslavsky, Gluboksky, Dokshitsky, and Chashniksky districts, where a total of 261 hectares had been sown as of April 10. "The machinery and personnel are ready for sowing, which is currently held back by weather conditions. It is planned that within the next 2-3 days, with the establishment of comfortable positive temperatures day and night, farmers in all districts of the region will be able to launch spring field work," the committee noted. Currently, winter grain crops and grasslands are being top-dressed in the region's farms. Reseeding of perennial grasses under winter grain crops is being completed. The latter works have been carried out on 31.2 thousand hectares, which is 78% of the plan. The total sown area in the Vitebsk region this year will be 873 thousand hectares, including 500 thousand hectares, or 57.3%, for grain and leguminous crops. 120 thousand hectares (13.7%) are allocated for technical crops, 5 thousand hectares (0.6%) for potatoes, 1.8 thousand hectares (0.2%) for open ground vegetables, and 246.2 thousand hectares (28.2%) for fodder crops. Approximately 9 thousand machine operators will be involved in spring field work. -0-

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